The semiconductor industry has experienced continual rapid growth due to continuous improvements in the integration density of various electronic components (i.e., transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, etc.). For the most part, this improvement in integration density has come from repeated reductions in minimum feature size, allowing for the integration of more components in a given area.
For integrated circuit designs, process design kits (PDKs) have been commercially used to design the integrated circuits. Conventionally, a PDK is a set of data files and script files used within the semiconductor industry to model transistors of a certain technology for a certain foundry. Different kinds of cell libraries can be used with various available software tools. A PDK's main components are models, symbols, technology files, cells, and rule files. With a PDK, designers can work through the design process seamlessly, from schematic entry to tapeout. For example, circuit design engineers can use the information in PDKs to prepare netlists for circuit simulations, and based on the simulation results, these engineers can validate and/or modify the designs of the integrated circuits.